WATCH: U.S. not yet negotiating with China on trade, Bessent tells lawmakers

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a House subcommittee Tuesday that the U.S. is “currently negotiating” with 17 of its 18 “very important trading relationships” – but China is not one of them “as of yet.”

Bessent also said he expects that “perhaps as early as this week, we will be announcing trade deals with some of our largest trading partners.”

Bessent’s testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on the White House’s 2026 budget request comes amid President Donald Trump’s campaign to increase global tariffs, or taxes on goods imported from other countries into the United States.

Trump argues that tariffs will stimulate American manufacturing, encourage Americans to buy products made in the U.S. and raise revenue. But economists, as well as many lawmakers and voters, are concerned about the resulting trade wars, and that they will plunge the U.S. into a new era of economic uncertainty.

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